Nicolaus Mills

Reviving James Michener: The Relevance of South Pacific

Fifty-nine years after its Broadway debut, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammersteins South Pacific is once again drawing applause. At this years Tony Award ceremony, it topped all musicals, winning seven awards. But the most serious praise for New York Citys Lincoln Center revival stems from the way it deals with race.The praise is well deserved for a play that in 1949 was far ahead of its time, but critics have failed to give sufficient credit to the person most responsible for the intelligence behind South Pacific—James Michener, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 Tales of the South Pacific provided Rodgers and Hammerstein with their story.

A Tale of Two Hurricanes: Galveston and New Orleans

When we think of New Orleans and its recovery from Hurricane Katrina, the comparisons that come to mind most often are Chicago after the fire of 1871 and San Francisco after the earthquake of 1906. The Phoenix-like rise of these two cities seems like nothing so much as a lesson in how to rebuild after a disaster. But as the recovery of New Orleans languishes and its scattered poor struggle to take root elsewhere, there is a third city—Galveston, Texas—that we ought to consider when thinking of post-Katrina New Orleans. In contrast to Chicago and San Francisco, Galveston offers a cautionary tale that suggests recovery from a disaster can, even with the best of intentions, be limited in scope and close out rather than open up opportunity.